The world-famous trademark for the word “the” was obtained by Goallover Limited of London who according to DomainTools.com owns an amazing amount of domain names approaching nearly 100, but was able to get all of the following new gTLD’s using their globally well-known trademark on the word “the” under the ICANN trademark clearinghouse rules which allows them to obtain the domain names ahead of all other applicants.

Of course the company could have had obtained even more “the” new gTLD domain names in Sunrise but apparently did not apply for more.

Somehow the company doesn’t appear to own the domain name The.Com

For all Trademark Holders its nice to know the world is a safer place:

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

It is as we saw with the sunrise period and .EU when launched in 2005 (11 years ago… feels like yesterday!) and Benelux fast track trade marks were popular with many entities looking to get ahead of land rush, filing for trade mark protection for interesting common words, SEX for example was popular amongst domain name applicants. As ever all systems unfortunately get played. I would be interested to understand what proof of use was provided. It is supposed to be a sample that evidences an effort on behalf of the trademark holder to communicate to a consumer so that the consumer can distinguish the products or services of one from those of another….

This is clearly an abuse of Trademark Clearing House mechanism that was meant for protection of the trademark holders. That’s a way to save spending on the EAP auctions and still have domain with better success.
Trademark clearing house should watch for such abuses and should debar miscreants from participation in the sunrise period.
Domains should be taken back from those who have already exploited the system.

Additionally laughable is the acceptance of single character trademarks, Below is a list trademarks not only listed in the TMCH but verified for “Proof of Use” to trade during Sunrise …
1
2
5
7
8
w
x
y